Vocational School of Justice
PRIZES TO YOUNG DESIGNERS FROM KOREA
The young designers of Izmir University of Economics are back from Korea with prizes. Yağmur Merve Arık, Industrial Design Student at Izmir University of Economics Faculty of Fine Arts, has been awarded silver at the 21st International Design Trends for her design enabling people to produce their own fruits and vegetables indoors without soil. Also, Canan Gündoğan, Industrial Design Student at Izmir University of Economics Faculty of Fine Arts, has been awarded the special prize for her design of anti-dust bookshelf. Arık and Gündoğan’s designs will be cataloged in the competition catalogue.
The city of Izmir is proud of Arık and Gündoğan’s success in this competition organized by Korea Design Trend Association with the sponsorships of Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), the Korean Federation of Design Associations (KFDA). Informing us about her product called “Farmicus”; Arık explained that she developed an interactive product for the urbanites. “Rapidly increasing urbanization is decreasing the cultivated areas. Products have become poor in their nutrition quality and water resources have become contaminated. Considering these circumstances, the safest way for the consumers is to produce their own agricultural products on their own. Keeping this in mind, I designed Farmicus to make things easier for people who desire to get healthy food but lack of time, of information, and of experience. I am so happy to be awarded a prize with my design,” says Arık.
Arık has also reported that the greenhouses, farm fields and gardens are in the houses now, and the optimized lightening system enables plants to grow faster and healthier. Since the design requires no soil to function, Arık says, it provides a much cleaner environment compared to the traditional methods. “All you need to do is to fill the water tank and place the seeds. Farmicus is able to pump some of the water to the plant roots and it filters the rest of the water with its ceramic filtering system to supply daily fresh water needs. Farmicus has an application to observe the plant’s condition and to track the daily water consumption. Once downloaded, it is possible for the user to access all the information about the plant and receive messages for the harvest time,” explained Arık.